Forthright
The decision to refer the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026, to a 31-member Joint Parliamentary Committee is being projected by sections of the Opposition as a retreat by the Narendra Modi government. That interpretation is politically convenient—but factually hollow. It is not a defeat for the government. It is a demonstration of how a…
Pakistan may not be breaking up tomorrow—but the warning lights are flashing across the country. From Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Islamabad is confronting an uncomfortable reality: the Pakistani state is having increasing difficulty converting military power into political stability. The latest symbolism comes from Balochistan. On August 11, separatist figures…
The reported Iranian plot to assassinate US President Donald Trump is not merely another episode in the increasingly dangerous confrontation between Washington and Tehran. It is a chilling reminder of how far state-sponsored hostility can go—and why threats against elected national leaders must never be normalised, justified or politically romanticised. According to reports based on…
China has long believed in the power of nomenclature. Rename a place, repeat the invented name often enough, publish it in official documents and maps—and perhaps, over time, fiction can be made to resemble fact. Beijing has tried precisely this game with Arunachal Pradesh. India has now delivered an appropriate counter-punch—not with a military manoeuvre,…
There are imports Bharat pays for at the customs counter. There are others for which the nation pays far more dearly—through stalled projects, lost investment, delayed infrastructure, energy insecurity and opportunities that disappear forever. Foreign donations can become one such expensive import when money entering Bharat from overseas is allowed to become a vehicle for…
The successful user-trial of the Agni-IV ballistic missile marks yet another milestone in Bharat’s steady march towards strategic self-reliance and credible deterrence. In an increasingly volatile Asian security environment, where two nuclear-armed neighbours continue to modernise their military capabilities, the latest validation of Agni-IV sends a clear message: Bharat possesses both the technological capability and…
For decades, Bharat watched successive industrial revolutions unfold from the sidelines. We became consumers of many breakthrough technologies rather than their creators. The semiconductor race was largely missed. The internet revolution was dominated by American companies. China surged ahead in manufacturing. The lesson was unmistakable—late entry into strategic technologies comes at an enormous national cost….
How many controversies must Meta stumble into before sovereign nations begin treating it as a geopolitical actor rather than just another social media company? The temporary restriction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video may have been dismissed by Meta as an “inadvertent technical error.” But India has every reason to ask a far more fundamental…
Democracy is not weakened when questions are asked. It is weakened when questions are dismissed without answers. In a constitutional democracy, no institution—whether it wears political colours, religious robes or spiritual attire—should claim immunity from public scrutiny. If governments, corporations, NGOs and religious organizations can all be investigated whenever credible complaints arise, why should any…
For decades, India lived with a dangerous contradiction. We celebrated our engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs, yet remained heavily dependent on foreign countries for a wide range of critical industrial products. From sophisticated electronics and industrial machinery to components powering renewable energy, pharmaceuticals and electric vehicles, India often remained a buyer rather than a builder. That…
